Words on Scotland, history, culture and feminism.

Postcards from 2014

I sometimes reach a point where I think, actually, what on earth have I spent my time doing? I’m not always great at keeping an up-to-date diary, and when things get busy it seems I’ve let the time pass and just existed through it, floating from day to day. Now there are busy weeks and quiet weeks, but sometimes I feel a little bit like Moss:

To cure the soggy-crisp feeling, I like to keep a list of events that took place and things that I’ve done, from milestones like turning 21, to smaller actions like learning to take breaks from social media, to show myself just how much I’ve packed in to the past 365 days. Taking stock of things like this is a good reality check, and stops me getting hung up on the (usually tiny) things I think I’ve done wrong. It reminds me that while I might not be sure of where I’ll end up, what I’ve done up to now constitutes a path I want to be on.

Among other things, in 2014 I saw a lot, read a lot, traveled quite a bit, wrote quite a bit, and snapped a load of photos. Below are some of my favourite ‘postcards’ from the year, collected on my travels around Dorset, Great Yarmouth, the Outer Hebrides, Dublin, Fife and good old Aberdeenshire. A wave of calm washes over me when I see these photographs again. I’m transported back to where I was when I took the photo, who I was with, what sort of day it was, what the scene inspired me to write. Here’s hoping 2015 brings more of the same – sometimes unexpected – opportunities and experiences as this past year. My path seems reasonably well-lit until graduation. I don’t know where it’ll lead next, but I do know the steps I take between now and then will take me closer to finding out, and form a new list along the way.